Laura Maud Thompson

Laura Maud Thompson (January 23, 1905 ― January 28, 2000) was an American social anthropologist best known for her studies of CHamoru culture in Guam. She studied many cultures around the world, including Native American nations, with the self-professed aim of "trying to build an integrated theory of human group behavior that was grounded in actual behavior and relied on rigorous methods of verification to ensure reliability." Thompson later described herself as one of "Kroeber's girls," "a group of young women who became known for their far-flung explorations in various parts of the world." Museum director Herbert E. Gregory, described as "impatient and dictatorial," While stationed in Hagåtña, she soon set up a field headquarters in Merizo. Her primary female field assistant, Rosa Aguigui Reyes, was the first woman elected to the Guam Congress. In 1943, the U.S. Navy hired Thompson to tell them how the CHamorus of Guam were fairing under Japanese occupation and whether they would welcome the U.S. retaking of the island, which occurred in 1944. Thompson enjoyed producing several reports for the Navy as she felt that this was in line with her belief that anthropology should be a predictive social science. As a result of Thompson's political activism on behalf of CHamoru self-government, the U.S. military, which controlled travel on and off of Guam, denied her permission to return for many years after the war.

After the Indian Education, Personality and Administration Project ended, Thompson was appointed to the Policy Board of the U.S. National Indian Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1948. Her marriage to Collier also ended. Like other female anthropologists who had worked outside academia, she was unable to secure a tenure-track position and took a series of one- and two-year teaching appointments. During the 1950s and 1960s, Thompson taught at the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State College, City College and Brooklyn College of City University of New York, Southern Illinois University, the University of California, Utah State University, Pennsylvania State University, San Francisco State University, and the University of Hawaii. She also held positions at the Bank Street College of Education in 1953 and the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute at Wayne State University in 1954. At the same time, she was a consultant for a number of projects, including the Hutterite Socialization Project at Pennsylvania State University from 1962 to 1965 and the Centennial Joint School System Project in Pennsylvania from 1964 to 1966.

In her speech accepting the 1979 Bronislaw Malinowski Award from the Society for Applied Anthropology, Thompson highlighted how the first generation of applied anthropologists advised those trying to make colonialism more efficient, noting that these early anthropologists were "under a certain degree of pressure from the larger society to develop a set of tools for engineering, manipulating, and managing people in small groups and ethnic enclaves toward utilitarian goals superimposed from without."

After years of being unable to return to Guam, Thompson made her first return visit in 1977, when she was invited to be the keynote speaker for the CHamoru Studies Conference held at George Washington High School. She returned again in April 1987 to give the keynote speech, titled "Talking Stones," to the University of Guam's Annual College of Arts and Sciences Research Conference. In 1991, the Richard F. Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC) of the University of Guam hosted a reception at the Bishop Museum to honor Thompson on the publication of her autobiography, Beyond The Dream. Following her death on January 23, 2000, memorial services were held both in Honolulu and on Guam. Robert Underwood, the Delegate of Guam, entered an extended speech lauding Thompson as a "great anthropologist and true friend of Guam" into the Congressional Record from the House floor.

The Governor of Guam posthumously awarded her the Ancient Order of the Chamorri, the highest civilian honor given to a non-CHamoru person, for her profound contributions to Guam and its people.

Personal life In the mid-1930s, Thompson lived in Germany with her first husband, Bernhard Teuting. She studied rural ecology and religious change near Osnabrück, and briefly lived in Berlin while she worked on a project for the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. However, her husband physically abused her and she witnessed Adolf Hitler's consolidation of power under the Nazi Party. Leaving her husband, as well as most of her personal belonging and field notes, Thompson escaped back to Hawaii.

In 1943, Thompson married John Collier, the commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In 1963, Thompson married Sam Duker, a profession of education at Brooklyn College, whom she had known since they attended the Punahou School together. Following Duker's death in 1978, Thompson moved back to Hawaii. Thompson is survived by two nieces, a nephew, and a granddaughter.

Selected bibliography

(autobiography)